Résumé Writing

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Are you marketing yourself effectively?

Have you ever thought of your résumé as a personal marketing tool? If not, maybe it's time you do. Your résumé should be designed to impress potential employers by highlighting your most valuable skills and achievements.

You should think of yourself as a product, potential employers as your customers, and your résumé as a brochure about you. You should market yourself through your résumé. What are your features and benefits? What makes you unique? Make sure to convey this information in your résumé.

Résumé writing is critical in controlling the image you present to employers. The stronger the skill and experience descriptions are in your résumé--the higher the number of interviews and salary offers you will receive. Your résumé is your first chance to make a great first impression-- most of the time it's your only chance. It tells a recruiter or client to interview you or to toss your résumé into the trash.

To get a job interview, an effective résumé is crucial. There is no magic formula for writing a winning résumé, however there are guidelines that have to be taken into consideration for writing a good résumé:

1. You have to determine who is reading your résumé

A human resources manager? A department manager?  A headhunter? That person is looking for someone with certain experience, certain skills, and certain training. The better the position and the better the company you are applying to, the more résumés your résumé will be competing against.. That person knows the type of person they're looking for.  If you don't write what they're looking for, your résumé will be tossed out.  If you write exactly what they want to hear you will be one of the 4-5 interviewed.

2. Write what the reader wants to hear

This résumé has to be honest, but it also has to focus on the part of your background that is relevant to what the Manager is looking for. It should not be a coincidence that the Manager is finding what they are looking for.  Your résumé needs to tell him or her  exactly what they want to hear! But no fiction.

3. Make your résumé easy to read

Too many résumés are written in the traditional paragraph format that is not easy to read. Writing your résumé in a bulleted format will enable the Recruiter to scan it and find what he is looking for, instead of scanning the first 2 lines of the traditional paragraph without finding what they are looking for, because they don’t have enough time.

 4. Write a résumé with substance & depth.

Making your résumé easy to read doesn't mean simplifying your job descriptions down to 2-3 lines like on many résumés.  If you summarize your jobs down to 2-3 lines the recruiter will think you are lazy and don't do much on the job.  On the other hand, if you give 8-12 bullets describing your recent jobs the recruiter will think that you really take on significant responsibilities and are a good employee.  The bullet format enables you to say a lot and still be easy to read, as opposed to the paragraph format where the more you say the less is read.  Bulleting is a win-win technique.   It enables you to say a lot about your jobs and it is still easy to read.

The résumé has to satisfy both your purpose as well as the employer’s purpose of finding the right candidate for the job vacancy he has. It should satisfy your purpose of:

• Introducing you to an employer;
• Serving as an example of how you think and express yourself;
• Cataloguing your skills, experience, training and achievements;
• And getting you an interview!!!

The purpose of a résumé is to open the door to employment. It communicates your skills, education, experience and interests to a potential employer and assists the employer to assess your ability to do the job. There is no one right résumé, however the following tips can be useful in preparing winning résumés:

• Visual Impact: the appearance of the résumé counts. Good organization and an easy to read, neat design will create a positive first impression. Keep the résumé short and concise, use good quality paper, label each section of your résumé clearly and make use of white space so that the résumé is eye catching and easy to read.
• Create a document that really sells your strength. Be truthful about your accomplishments, don’t undersell yourself , however don’t exaggerate either.
• Know your target audience and customize your résumé for each employer and each job opening.
• Review your résumé meticulously for any mistakes and to fine tune your writing style.

To write your résumé the following approach can be followed:

Determine résumé focus (job you’re looking for), and assess your skills and achievements that relate to this focus.

1. List your experience
2. Decide on format: chronological or functional
3. Plan the layout of the résumé
4. Use action verbs and statements
5. Select key words & phrases to communicate your knowledge of the field
6. Write down the résumé
7. Edit and proofread

The following do’s and don’ts should help you to avoid a lot of the mistakes that would lead your résumé to be cast aside. These helpful tips include:

Do:

• Make it brief, using short phrases
• Use action verbs such as created, initiated, organized
• Include summer and part-time employment
• Emphasize skills, strengths and accomplishments
• List major awards, achievements and publications
• Organize education and employment in reverse chronological order
• Give attention to the attractiveness and clarity of the résumé
• Have your résumé critiqued for style, impact and spelling
• Use the language/jargon of your chosen field
• Relate the information given to your career objective

Don't

• Make the résumé longer than 4 pages
• Use negative words
• Include present salary or salary desired
• Use abbreviations
• Use common introductory phrases such as "My duties included" or "I was responsible for"
• Sell yourself short
• Include personal information (e.g., height, weight, birth date, marital status, or religion)

Cover Letter

• Always include a cover letter with your résumé.  Never send a plain résumé to a potential employer.
• This is your chance to use impressive writing style to briefly introduce your résumé.
• Individualize a cover letter for each company you apply to, do not use form letters.
• The employer will look at the cover letter for about eight seconds, so be brief.

References

• You will not have room to list your references on your résumé.  Saying "references available upon request" is perfectly acceptable.
• Make sure that you ask your references before listing them so that they aren't caught off guard by calls from potential employers.
• List the reference's name, title, place of employment, address at work, and work phone number.   Their e-mail address may also be very helpful to the employer.

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